Christmas Club?

[brympton]

Just testing the water here and in light of the Fairpack disaster I can understand that maybe this wont be so popular – but the basic idea is still sound (IMHO). All we need is an enterprising (and trusted) retailer to offer this facility. For example in return for a monthly direct debit payment I would be happy to receive offers/discounts on a variety of items. It would help me spread my costs and hopefully provide the retailer with a steady income. I realise that this adds to the administrative burden but there are benefits for all to be had. I welcome all opinions on this idea good or bad

Regards

Mark

[PhillyDee]

Buy gift vouchers every month?

Or do what I do, reverse christmas club. I get the item, THEN i pay for it later

[brympton]

Buy gift vouchers every month?

Or do what I do, reverse christmas club. I get the item, THEN i pay for it later

Ahh, but gift vouchers won't get you a discount and No, no ,no don't ever pay for it later. Seriously though I know saving up is an old fashioned concept but why pay interest? Here comes the controversial bit.. I never buy from anyone who charges extra for using Paypal... Maybe that's just me... but Paypal provides a service to the seller (IMHO) who otherwise could not accept credit cards... and some security for the buyer.

[Tim]

Yeh, gift vouchers are a bit of a stinker as far as retailers go. It's ok if you are selling them, as you make around 15% on the sale (GV's typically cost 85p/£), but when you come to redeem them there is a service charge of 17.5%, so it is for good reason that most retailers wont give a discount on goods bought with GV's, as they are already losing margin just for taking the things.

Then there are the charges you run up with a business account, just for banking your own money. We had our bill from Barclays today for the last quarter. The bank charges add up to £750, and that's just for paying money in. So even if we did make a monthly remittance by DD or somesuch, then the business who takes that is probably going to have to pay a percentage straight to their bank, which in turn makes it harder to offer great deals. And then you'd have to pay someone, or even yourself to do the admin etc.

I reckon, stuff it all in your mattress, and dont smoke in bed

[GazOC]

But retailers like gift vouchers (as opposed to a savings club) because a decent percentage of them either don't get cashed in or lead to a further purchase. How many times as a kid did you get a £5 book token and end up walking out of the shop with £10 worth of books?

[TheThing]

But retailers like gift vouchers (as opposed to a savings club) because a decent percentage of them either don't get cashed in or lead to a further purchase. How many times as a kid did you get a £5 book token and end up walking out of the shop with £10 worth of books?

Still do!

[Tim]

But retailers like gift vouchers (as opposed to a savings club) because a decent percentage of them either don't get cashed in or lead to a further purchase. How many times as a kid did you get a £5 book token and end up walking out of the shop with £10 worth of books?

Thats true enough Grant, there's a massive amount of unspent vouchers get thrown away. However this only really benefits those stores who do in-house vouchers, in the case of multi-store or generic vouchers the only winner is the shop who sells them but doesn't take them as payment.

Often when I sell them the customer will say, "Oh, i'll send my friend here to spend them too!", thinking they are doing you a favour!

So for the retailers you LIKE, buy your vouchers from them, and those you dont like, spend your vouchers there, and spend just less than the face value.

In the garden centre at least, most GV customers only spend what they have, but that tends to be £20 on average. On the plus side, you get free advertising on the GV gumpf, and it does attract in a wider customer base, plus the fact that many vouchers are bought for those who already have 'everything', and that tends to be the 50+ group, which is a target market for many enterprises, as that group generally has more leisure time and higher disposable incomes.

Hmm, hope I dont sound like a whinger on this, and I dont really have any point to make, it's just the effects of the credit crunch are hitting close to home, and we (at work) have some tough decisions to make soon.......and its playing on my mind

TJ